Benet Laboratories

Using CNC Optimization to deliver time-critical military components

Benet Laboratories’ mission is to support the warfighter with high quality weapon systems and components as soon as they can be delivered. The 60 MM Mortar System is effective, lightweight and portable — a practical system for the terrain in Afghanistan. Because of this need, there was a high demand for its expedited manufacture delivery to the troops. In an effort to reduce the production cost and times, the U.S. Army Watervliet Arsenal initiated a Lean Effort program for the system; one of the program’s goals was to optimize the CNC programs used to manufacture the system Handle using Production Module 3D, a Third Wave Systems’ toolpath analysis product.

“The use of Third Wave software is key to our rapid delivery.” – Dan Baker, Engineer

CHALLENGE

  • Accelerate the production of the 60 MM Mortar System for supporting the troops in the battlefield
  • The manufacturing facilities needed to respond with the existing production resources to provide a quick turn-around

APPROACH

  • Benet Laboratories’ engineers attended the on-site training run by TWS’ engineers
  • The 60 MM Mortar System Handle program was optimized in Production Module 3D by Benet Laboratories engineers during this training

IMPACT

  • Cycle time savings of 20% was achieved for the 60 MM Mortar System Handle
  • All time-critical component CNC programs for Watervliet Arsenal were subsequently scheduled to be optimized in Production Module by Benet Laboratories’ team

Get in touch with TWS!